artifice
Americannoun
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a clever trick or stratagem; a cunning, crafty device or expedient; wile.
- Synonyms:
- subterfuge
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trickery; guile; craftiness.
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cunning; ingenuity; inventiveness.
a drawing-room comedy crafted with artifice and elegance.
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a skillful or artful contrivance or expedient.
noun
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a clever expedient; ingenious stratagem
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crafty or subtle deception
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skill; cleverness
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a skilfully contrived device
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obsolete craftsmanship
Related Words
Etymology
Origin of artifice
1525–35; < Anglo-French < Latin artificium craftsmanship, art, craftiness, equivalent to arti-, combining form of ars art 1 + -fic-, combining form of facere to do 1, make + -ium + -ium
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Generously, one might interpret this as a Brechtian nod toward the film’s artifice as an arch and knowing remake laden with references.
From Los Angeles Times
It deconstructs the artifice of a rock show, making The 1975 seem more human - but equally, it deflates the excitement of watching a band in full flow.
From BBC
This building up and breaking down of artifice forces reflection on how we use fiction to explore and bend reality while undermining the comforts of distance.
From Los Angeles Times
"That's when it connects and when it means something. Otherwise, it's artifice."
From BBC
I think the artifice had reached a point of being inauthentic.
From Los Angeles Times
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
